New Jewish Theatre
An Award-Winning Program of the J!
The New Jewish Theatre has been nominated for 14 Kevin Kline Awards!
Leading the way was "The Immigrant" which received eight nominations, including Outstanding Ensemble Play and Outstanding Production of a Play.
Year after year, the New Jewish Theatre continues its tradition of presenting professional theatre at the highest level of artistic excellence, producing shows that examine universal themes and issues, filtered through the lens of the Jewish experience.
Each production provides entertaining and often provocative subject matter featuring theatre professionals from the St. Louis area and elsewhere.
Tickets start at just $34 for an individual ticket, or just $28 per show for season tickets. Group rates are available for 10 or more.
Performance times are Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:30 pm; Saturdays at 8:00 pm; Sundays at 2:00 pm and 7:30 pm.
Contact: NJT Hotline, 314-442-3283
Visit NJT: New Jewish Theatre Online
Interested in Chamber Music? Check out the New Jewish Theatre's Salon Music Series.
2011-12 Season Productions:
WAY TO HEAVEN by Juan Mayorga, translated by David Johnston
January 26 - February 12
This stunning new play by Spanish playwright Mayorga is inspired by the true story of the elaborate deception that took place at the Theresienstadt concentration camp, where the Nazis constructed a fake village to fool international inspectors and quell extermination rumors. The Nazis set up this Czech concentration camp as a “model village” for Jews, to prove to the world how thoughtfully and creatively they were solving the “Jewish problem.” Mayorga's startlingly original play shows the creation and rehearsal of another very unusual play, one in which the Jewish prisoners are assigned roles and given lines to say to the Red Cross inspectors who may be passing by. Perception, the power of images, rhetoric and Theater itself are among Mayorga's themes, and also, perhaps most significantly, the play asks, how much courage is required to take responsibility for what one sees. It is hauntingly gripping and profoundly moving.
THE VALUE OF NAMES by Jeffrey Sweet
March 15 - April 1
This production asks how we deal with our moral convictions both in the past and in the present. Both political and personal, it is the story of two men, former friends, whose friendship ended as a result of the infamous McCarthy hearings before the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities. After Benny, a celebrated comic was named to the Hollywood blacklist of the Fifties, his career took a nosedive. Now, 30 years later, new circumstances force them to confront each other and explore their deepest feelings. Benny’s actress daughter has been cast in a play to be directed by the man who had testified against him. Suddenly he is forced to deal again with a moral crisis which he has tried to put behind him. When the two former friends meet, a confrontation ensues exposing a provocative and increasingly passionate exchange of ideas and convictions. It is a provocative and passionate and consistently engrossing story packing an almost overwhelming emotional wallop at the end.
JACOB AND JACK by James Sherman
May 3 - May 20
James Sherman (From Door to Door) gives us this delightful soufflé of a play. Jack Shore, a well-known television personality, is appearing for one night only in a tribute to his grandfather, Jacob Shemerinsky, great star of the Yiddish Theater. Backstage in his dressing room, Jack confronts his challenges as an actor - and as a husband to his co-starring wife. Simultaneously, 75 years in the past, Jacob has problems of his own. Actors play their past and present roles in a dizzying display of life in the theater in this time-traveling farce that is a smart and classic marital farce ingeniously complicated by historical layering and dual role-playing. From its Yiddish roots to its long obsession to Hollywood, it is a beguiling comic love letter to the American theater, a crackling little commentary on actors - and their mothers, wives, girlfriends and managers. A door-slamming comedy, it is a clever tribute to Yiddish Theatre as well as to vain glorious stage actors.
Completed 2011-12 Productions:
END DAYS by Deborah Zoe Laufer
September 8 - 25
Laufer’s play is a wacky and off-balance tale that takes aim at science, religion, celebrity worship and suburbia. Set in 2003, just two years after 9/11, sixteen-year-old Rachel Stein is having a bad year. Her father, suffering from post 9/11 depression, won't leave the house or change out of his pajamas. Her mother, Sylvia, is a lapsed Jew who has become a devout born again Christian. Nelson the nerdy sixteen-year- old neighbor who dresses as Elvis has a huge crush on her. The ensuing events of the play propel this dysfunctional family on a journey of discovery that is a manic whirlwind of a family drama that is at the same time weird and illuminating and truthful. The play is poignantly redemptive and often hilariously funny, as it asks us what we would hold most sacred if we knew the end was near.
THE LAST NIGHT OF BALLYHOO by Alfred Uhry
December 1 - 18
Uhry sets his play in Atlanta in December 1939. "Gone with the Wind" is having its world premiere, and Hitler is invading Poland, but Atlanta's elitist German Jews are much more concerned with who is going to Ballyhoo, the social event of the season. The conflict between social acceptability and cultural definition escalates when Brooklyn born Joe Farkas (of Eastern European heritage) is brought home to dinner at the Freitag family home. The land mines of inter-religious prejudice loom large as the family gets pulled apart and then mended together with plenty of comedy, romance and revelations along the way. As events take several unexpected turns, the characters face where they come from and are forced to deal with who they really are. The warm and delightful play delicately deals with issues of prejudice, assimilation and social and religious identity and faith.
Kevin Kline Awards for NJT!
The New Jewish Theatre has captured 45 Kevin Kline nominations and six Awards since the awards began eight years ago.
The awards received are:
2005 Awards
2006 Awards
2007 Awards
The JCC New Jewish Theatre receives support from:
The JCC New Jewish Theatre is a member of:
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